Impress-K completed the individual final on 5.60 penalty points, finishing just behind World Champion Steve Guerdat of Switzerland (0.86) and ahead of Great Britain’s Harry Charles (7.17), who married Eve Jobs, daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, last year. In Friday’s team competition, Belgium claimed silver behind Germany and ahead of Great Britain.

For breeders Tony Raman and Mieke Strobbe, this landmark achievement represents the high point of a journey that originally began with a cow.

"I ride cows and milk horses or is it the other way around?"

Mieke Strobbe grew up at Kattenheye in Laarne surrounded by pigs and cattle. When the farm’s only horse went on "vacation" and never returned, her father refused to buy a pony for recreation. Undeterred, Mieke broke the farm's cows to saddle, jumping included.

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Her husband, Tony, came from the Haflinger world and worked as a carriage driver in Ghent. When the two met at Mieke’s brother’s wedding, where the groom’s dream was to arrive behind a four-in-hand, it was love at first sight. Once Tony moved to the farm, a Haflinger quickly followed. The eventual transition into a horse dairy completed the full circle.

Summarizing 50 years of agricultural life, Mieke jokes: "I ride cows and milk horses. Or maybe it's the other way around!"

"She called to me with her eyes, not her ears"

A vast portion of the sport horses born at the farm trace back to a single matriarch: Eloubet van de Doorndonkhoeve (Kannan x Baloubet du Rouet). Her arrival was pure serendipity. The couple went to view a Haflinger for sale, but Eloubet was standing in the adjacent box, and Mieke was instantly smitten.

"From the very first glance, she called to me with her eyes, not her ears," Mieke says, poking fun at Eloubet’s notably large ears.

The seller was skeptical, stating bluntly: "You’re Haflinger people; a horse like this is out of your league." Tony countered that if they couldn't buy Eloubet, they wouldn't buy the Haflinger either. The deal went through, and both horses traveled home to Kattenheye. Tragically, just two weeks later, Eloubet severed an artery. She was stitched up at the clinic, but the diagnosis was definitive: her sport career was over before it began.

"Back then, VDL Stud was hugely renowned," Mieke recalls. "So I traveled up to Bears in the Netherlands and selected Indoctro."

That mating produced Indoktro-K van ’t Kattenheye, the first Warmblood stallion foal bred on the farm. Disaster struck when they took the foal to an auction selection: while unloading, he caught himself on the trailer hitch and sustained an injury, ruling him out. Two years later, they found themselves with an unproven two-year-old stallion and no concrete plan.

"He was so gentle, but what do you do with a stallion?" Mieke says. That was until Wuustwezel-based stallion owner Jan Vermeiren asked if they had anything available.

Indoktro-K jumped free once, a deal was struck, and he went on to earn approval at the BWP Stallion Licensing. He won the Belgian Stallion Competition multiple times and dominated the Belgian Young Horse Cycle in Gesves and Lummen, later competing up to 1.50m in the United States.

"The first success might be luck, but the second generation proves our breeding program is truly anchored," Mieke says proudly, referring to Impress-K as a second-generation Kattenheye success story.

From Haflinger Champions to Olympic Pedigrees

Even before breeding Warmbloods, the couple approached Haflingers with absolute professionalism. Beauty-K van ’t Kattenheye, born in 1993, was the very first foal born on the farm. In 1997, as a four-year-old, she captured the Belgian Haflinger National Championship, repeating the feat in 1998. At 26, Mieke became part of the youngest champion combination in history at the Azelhof arena in Lier—where many Kattenheye-bred horses still compete nearly three decades later.

In 2014, the dairy shifted focus to Warmbloods. Julia van de Donkhoeve (Vagabond de la Pomme) arrived in a batch of mares intended for breeding and milking. She had never competed herself.

"However, looking at her granddam, Utopia, who performed exceptionally well and built a prolific damline of high-performer horses, why wouldn't we give Julia a chance?" Mieke explains.

This lineage makes Impress-K a relative of Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, the mount ridden by Jessica Springsteen (daughter of Bruce Springsteen) to the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Julia’s first foal on the farm was a striking black colt. "It was what I had dreamed of for years," Mieke says. "He impressed me from day one, hence his name, Impress-K."

Impress-K was raised as a milk foal: spending days with his peers while the mares were milked, and returning to his mother in the evenings until seven months of age.

"As Belgium's only operational horse dairy, we hosted frequent tour groups," Tony recalls. "A busload of 50 people would arrive, and everyone would head straight to the foals. Impress was always the ringleader, stepping up first to get all the attention."

In short: Belgium’s future World Championship medalist was routinely fawned over by busloads of day-trippers.

Spotted by a Harley-Davidson

At two-and-a-half years old, the stallion was sold to Belgian international rider Niels Bruynseels (trainer of Thibeau Spits). When Patrick Spits later visited Niels’ farm to try horses for clients, he arrived on his Harley-Davidson. After a successful session purchasing five horses, Patrick started up his motorcycle to leave. The sudden engine roar startled a young horse in the pasture, prompting an astonishing jump over the fence line.

"My jaw dropped," Spits later recalled. "The explosive power and technique were unbelievable—I had to have him."

The breeders have no regrets about selling early. "He would never have received the opportunities with us that he has now," says Tony. "We are breeders, grounded at home. The high-level sport side just isn't our world."

Asked who made the most profit on the deal, Tony laughs: "Hopefully the Spits family! They’ve certainly covered the biggest expenses since."

What the breeders did gain were unforgettable experiences: "We aren't city folk, but we’ve taken four or five city trips now—all thanks to Impress-K and the Spits-Ceulemans family including us. We never would have done that without him."

Perseverance on the Land

Two years ago, the farm’s existence was threatened when plans emerged for a proposed highway through their land. "It almost felt like the end of Kattenheye," Tony says. "But with nothing set in stone, you have to push forward." Fortunately, the highway project has since stalled.

Beyond administrative hurdles, Mieke considers her husband's physical injuries the hardest part of their 20-year journey. "Tony has landed in intensive care multiple times after farm accidents. In those moments, you ask yourself if it's all worth it."

Tony takes a lighter view: "When people see me walk, they can tell I'm not a sound horse anymore. If they look at my head, they'll see a few dents. The rest stays covered by my clothes," he laughs. "Breeding horses costs a lifetime and brings plenty of gray hairs. If you aren't bitten by the bug, don't start. But if you do," Mieke adds, "follow your own vision, believe in your story, and above all persevere!"

Ranked Twelfth in the World

While Impress-K is their flagship star, he is not alone. On the WBFSH World Jumping Breeder Rankings, Tony Raman and Mieke Strobbe reached an impressive 12th place globally.

Among their other elite exports is Pixel-K van ’t Kattenheye (out of Florence van de Donkhoeve). Ridden by German-American athlete Ansgar Holtgers Jr., the gelding won the $200,000 Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, in March 2025, marking Holtgers’ career-first 4* Grand Prix victory. In June 2026, the pair followed up by winning the Grand Prix of Gelderland. To date, Pixel-K has amassed nearly €200,000 in international prize money.